Here’s this summer’s playlist. The theme is my top forty favorite prog rock songs. This may or may not actually fit with a summertime backyard barbecue party vibe, but it’s what’s been on my mind recently as I’m putting together the Spellbound record and looking for songs out there to compare to. So I thought I’d give it a shot just because it’s hard to find the time to sit down and listen to music.
The roots or prog of course are in 60’s British psychedelic blues and pop jam bands, so that’s where we start. I actually had a whole bunch more 60’s songs on the list which I jettisoned to make room for more core proggy stuff in the 70’s and beyond. As with previous playlists, I decided to have only a single songs per band, although King Crimson tempted me to make an exception because the different versions over the decades were essentially different bands. Nevertheless, some musicians like Bill Bruford, Tony Levin and John Wetton appear multiple times since they’ve been in a bunch of different bands. The other rule I had was to avoid full album side length tracks. The one exception to this is Iron Butterly, the original long song from a heavy 60’s jam band. As it is, this playlist is almost as long as other that have twice the number of tunes! Also there’s a good handful of songs that are considered canonically essential, but I skipped them because I never dug them. As the 70’s get into the 80’s and beyond, the list gets a little more idiosyncratic as the genre rubs against adjacent styles like metal, techno and jazz fusion. Hopefully I did a good job representing the re-emergence of prog in the twenty first century as it continues to the present day.
1960’s
The Beatles – Strawberry Fields Forever
The Beach Boys- Good Vibrations
The Nice – America
Iron Butterfly- In a Godda Da Vida
Frank Zappa – Peaches en Regalia
Jethro Tull – Bourée
1970’s
Gentle Giant – Giant
Yes – Starship Trooper
Led Zeppelin – Four Sticks
The Moody Blues – I’m Just a Singer (In a Rock’n’Roll Band)
Emerson Lake & Palmer – Trilogy
Deep Purple – Highway Star
Uriah Heep – The Magician’s Birthday
Chicago – While the City Sleeps
Pink Floyd – Money
Supertramp – School
Queen – Ogre Battle
King Crimson – Starless
Camel – Air Born
Genesis – Dance on a Volcano
Kansas – Point of Know Return
Rush – Xanadu
U.K. – Thirty Years
Styx – Renegade
Led Zeppelin – Carouselambra
Bill Bruford – Hell’s Bells
1980’s – 90’s
The Police – Behind My Camel
Blue Öyster Cult – Fire of Unknown Origin
Asia – Wildest Dreams
Alan Parsons Project – Gemini/Silence and I
Iron Maiden – Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Spinäl Tap – Stonehenge
Marillion – Pseudo-Silk Kimono/Kayleigh
Gowan – You’re a Strange Animal
Dream Theatre – Pull Me Under
Ozric Tentacles – Astro Cortex
Liquid Tension Experiment – Paradigm Shift
2000’s – Now
Tool – Lateralus
Porcupine Tree – Trains
Spock’s Beard – On a Perfect Day
Tame Impala – Let It Happen
Sons of Apollo – God of the Sun
King Gizzard and the Wizard Lizard – Dragon